By Summer Zhen and Jiaxing Li
HONG KONG (Reuters) -Eric Trump, the second son of U.S. President Donald Trump, predicted on Friday at a conference in Hong Kong that bitcoin would reach $1 million within several years, and he called China “a hell of a power” in developing cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin has risen 18% this year but it still well off that $1 million mark. It hit a record high of $124,480 in mid-August, buoyed by friendlier regulations from the Trump administration and strong demand from institutional investors.
On Friday it traded around $110,000, off those record highs.
“There’s no question bitcoin hits $1 million,” Eric Trump said during a panel discussion at the Bitcoin Asia conference, citing surging institutional demand and limited supply.
Mainland China bans crypto trading but is considering yuan-backed stablecoins to boost its usage globally, Reuters reported last week, citing sources.
Hong Kong passed a stablecoin bill in May, vying with the United States and regional peers to become a global digital asset hub.
Asked whether his father and Chinese President Xi Jinping would discuss cryptocurrencies any time soon, Eric Trump said both countries probably understood the digital currency “better than anybody else in the world”.
Eric Trump, an executive vice president of the Trump Organization, said the bitcoin community had supported his father before he became U.S. president for a second time.
“And I hope that’s paid off in spades because we love this community. We believe in this community,” he said.
The Trump family has expanded into several cryptocurrency ventures over the past year, including a crypto exchange, a stablecoin, a bitcoin mining operation, and digital asset ETFs.
A bitcoin miner backed by Eric Trump and his brother Donald Trump Jr. is gearing up for a Nasdaq listing next month.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao told a separate panel at Friday’s conference that the U.S. was “setting the case” for forward-leaning regulations that were making other governments take action.
(Reporting by Summer Zhen and Jiaxing Li in Hong Kong, additional reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Singapore; Writing by Scott Murdoch; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Gareth Jones)